EDMONTON — Wayne Gretzky, a guy who knew a thing or two about scoring goals, once said that you miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take — which takes us directly to the Edmonton Oilers.

Through six minutes of power play time against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, the Oilers mustered just two shots on net. And it wasn’t much better five-on-five.

After scoring two quick goals on Flyers netminder Steve Mason, the Oilers came up with just seven shots through 36 minutes. In the final 40 minutes, the Flyers had a commanding 25-7 advantage on the shot clock and by the end of the overtime session, Edmonton had been outshot 38-16.

They had just seven shots blocked in a game they would go on to lose 4-3 in a shootout.

“We just complicate it for ourselves,” said winger David Perron, pointing directly to the power play. “I know that the guys are feeling good about trying to make plays and that they have the confidence to make plays — which is pretty cool to see and it’s fun to play with them — but we have to shoot it more. And I’m part of that.

“How many shots did we have?

“Then five-on-five, they shoot from up top, from the middle, and I don’t know if we’ve had one shot like that in the last I-don’t-know-how-many games. When you shoot it and you have the talent we have, things open up,” he continued.

“I know everyone says it’s a cliché. Blah, blah, blah but it’s true. It’s just true because that’s the way it works.”

So it would be a stretch then to say that the Oilers shot themselves in the foot in the contest. Instead, they surrendered three power play goals to the Rexall Place visitors — a first for the Oilers who had not given up three in their previous 40 games this season — and in the process, they failed to stretch their win streak to three games after building a 2-0 lead.

The days ahead won’t get any easier either.

The Oilers embark on a stretch that will see them play seven straight games against top 12 teams — a stretch that starts with a three-game road trip that opens Tuesday against the Phoenix Coyotes and wraps up Friday against the mighty Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks won their 10th straight game on Saturday and remain an intimidating 14-0-2 on home ice.

The San Jose Sharks were only other team to play its first 16 home games without suffering a regulation loss, going 20-0-2 in 2008-09. The Oilers play the Sharks on Thursday.

San Jose is ranked ninth in the NHL’s shots against a game category; the Coyotes have the third best home power play percentage; the Ducks, the sixth best penalty kill on home ice.

“I know for the power play anyway there’s not a real simplicity to it. There are a lot of guys, including myself, who aren’t sticking to the game plan. That’s something we have to work on,” said Taylor Hall, who scored the game’s opening goal. “That’s something we have to change.

“Look at (the Flyers) power play. Everyone knows where they’re going. It is straight lines. It’s hard hockey until you get the puck back. And right now on our power play we’re kind of waiting for the play to come to us.”

Head coach Dallas Eakins changed up the power play units in the third period — sending out Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, Justin Schultz and Perron, who scored to give the Oilers a 3-2 lead they relinquished less than three minutes later.

“Our last power play was our best effort but, boy, it was a challenge early,” said Eakins. “And it wasn’t our setup … we couldn’t even get set up.

“We couldn’t get puck retrieval, which is something we’re going to have to work very hard on the next few weeks.”

It’s one of the areas the Oilers need to improve as they head into the second half of the season with an abysmal record of 13-24-4.

“We pot two quick ones and it’s looking good, then we got to our game of turning pucks over,” said Eberle. “Then we weren’t chipping it behind and we weren’t getting any zone time. That’s why they ran up the shot clock. We were giving them chances to get into our zone again, and we got a little undisciplined and they score three power play goals.”

OIL DROPS — Former Oiler Gilbert Brule, who played three games with the Coyotes this season, has been assigned to the Portland Pirates, along with Jordan Szwarz … Corey Potter (groin) did not play for the Oilers on Saturday, opening the door for Martin Marincin.